Monday, November 12, 2012

Keeping in mind which filmmakers are tuned to your own preferences is usually a pretty safe way to know which flicks will deliver, but now this policy failed big time. McTiernan is usually a brilliant director with undying classics like Predator, Die Hard and The Hunt For Red October under his belt which makes the complete failure of Rollerball a distinct mystery. The original Rollerball (1975) had a strong social commentary and the remake is stripped of such things in favor of badly executed action sequences. The cast includes fine actors like Reno and Andrews but are all wasted amidst a horrible script and really, really bad direction by McTiernan. Klein is a charmless hero and the usually perky Cool J just seems pissed for singing on to this planecrash of a film. Rightfully so. John, what the fuck happened??

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Oh man. I had such high hopes for this film but.. really, they expect me to identify and root for petty thugs as heroes? Scumbags who rob and intimidate people just for kicks? The whole film I was cheering for the fucking aliens. There's one very good aspect to Block and surprisingly it is the low budget execution. They've really had to think outside the box with the effects, especially with the aliens who are pitch black creatures, silhouettes really, with teeth that glow in the dark. Cheap and quite effective. The Brits usually deliver in these genres and Attack The Block could've been one of the greats on the level with, say, Shaun Of The Dead if only it had a little thing called likeable characters instead of bunch of assholes. Oh well.

Ugh, the logical third step: kids. The first film, Meet The Parents was very funny and even the sequel, Meet The Fockers scraped by but two times was the limit for this franchise. The formula has tiredly been stretched to the next inevitable step and honestly how many fucking times is De Niro's suspicious father-in-law gonna close Stiller outside the goddamn circle of trust? Delivers some little laughs but really when you start adding kids to the mix, you've cashed in your last chip. And not a very good chip at that.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

While this short documentary isn't the kind of thing I'd normally bring up, it sincerely stopped me in my tracks and I felt it had to be shared.

The Aokigahara forest in Japan is a gruesomely notorious place for being a favored destination to people who want to commit suicide. Every year approx 50 to 100 bodies are discovered in the forest. Aokigahara is the second most popular place in the world for suicides right after The Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.

_BE WARNED_! This documentary features some graphic images of corpses.

(for subtitles, hit the close captions logo, [CC], on the bottom edge of the video)

There is also an alternate version, which informs at the end that the guy in the yellow tent was in fact removed later that day by an ambulance and had been surviving in the forest for two months with nothing but liquids.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Last saturday night, there was a special screening of RoboCop held at the Bio Rex cinema at downtown Helsinki. The screening was of the unrated director's cut and in addition to the privilege of seeing this cinematic masterpiece on the big screen, director Paul Verhoeven himself was at the event to present the film to the audience.

When I first heard about this I almost did a goddamn backflip because this man is a hero of mine. I've always held these directors to the highest respect who not only are able to tell great stories, but also fully understand the techical aspects of good filmmaking by which I mean clever camera blocking, use of music, pacing in editing and so forth. In this toughest league of filmmakers, Verhoeven has always been a master and RoboCop was simply the first film to really demonstrate his genius in the US. All of his Hollywood films that've followed (Showgirls included) have been entertaining to say the least. Even Hollow Man, the film which made Verhoeven reflect his own motifs in American filmmaking and eventually return to Europe, is very entertaining, fluent and especially well made.

Now, granted, Verhoeven wasn't in Finland just to present RoboCop at the annual Night Visions film festival, but to promote his new book Jesus Of Nazareth co-written with Rob Van Scheers (author of Verhoeven's biography). At the screening Verhoeven kindly held two Q&A's, one before the film and one after. At this point I have to say that never in my life have I been more embarrassed to be a part of Finnish film audience because in the middle of the first Q&A some -and please pardon my French here- fucking douchebag interrupted the honored guest by yelling out "start the fucking movie already!". Luckily he was immediately put in his place by the rest of the audience (myself included). Afterwards, once the film had ended and the director was kind enough to continue with a thorough Q&A, he still stuck around happily for autographs and pictures with his fans. Not a selfish bone in the man's body.

The film was of course still an undeniable masterpiece and the evening as a whole one I shall never forget. Mr. Verhoeven, thank you for all your films, I will stay tuned for whatever might be coming next, and also thank you sincerely for the picture. A film buff such as myself really couldn't ask for a more grand experience.

As James Bond 007 celebrates 50 years, producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson release one of the best Bond films to date. Skyfall continues the new wave of Bond which started with the superb Casino Royale and continued with the somewhat lesser but still solid Quantum Of Solace.

Craig has fully and effortlessly inhabited the role and this time works with a director already familiar to him (the two collaborated on Road To Perdition). Visiting writer Paul Haggis (Crash) from previous two films has exited to make room for John Logan (Gladiator, Star Trek Nemesis). The script is brilliant and introduces some radical changes back to the feel and ultimately the look of previous Bonds over the decades although this will mostly be evident only in the last five minutes or so (take notice of M's office for instance). Bardem as the main antagonist is a stroke of brilliance. As an actor, he is a force of nature and though very subtle, he creates a truly memorable gay character rarely seen in mainstream cinema, not to mention in Bond history.

I was eagerly waiting for this film and though it doesn't happen as often as one would hope, it is always nice to have the film meet up with your expectations and perhaps in this case even more. As long as I can remember, I've always loved Bond films and Skyfall will definitely remain as one the best certainly at least in my mind.

The first Taken caught eveyone by surprise back in 2008 and especially Neeson himself who in an interview revealed that he thought the film would end up going straight to video. The sequel feels a bit forced at times thanks to over editing but ultimately conquers the odds against it. This time it's not Neeson's daughter who gets kidnapped but the man himself by the relatives of the criminals he iced the first time around. It would be folish to expect anything deep and meaningful from Taken 2 but I'd say that everyone who's seen the original and wants to check out the sequel is very aware of this going in. It is a solid sequel because the one thing that made Taken such a joy was Neeson's unforgiving "set of skills" and they have not faded to the second installment and neither has the man himself.

It's always a tricky business remaking cinematic milestones and though the original Total Recall made in 1990 would be easy to brush off as just another Schwarzenegger actioner, that wasn't the case. Director Paul Verhoeven along with a brilliant fresh script and cast created a truly original scifi thriller and this new version falls short of everything with the exception of some decent performances, great action and elevated production value. The remake really has no soul of it's own, even though one has been tried desperately to create. In my opinion the film basically works only because it obides by the rules of good remakes: be true to the original but throw enough of your own in the mix to keep the distance. In this the film succeeds but as hard as it tries, the remake of Total Recall can only be viewed as an entertaining action flick shadowed greatly by the original.
Alkuperäinen, vuoden 1990 Total Recall -Unohda Tai Kuoleolisi tietämättömän silmissä helppo ohittaa vuokraamon hyllyssä vain yhtenä Iso-Arskan vanhana rynkytysleffana, mutta se olisi virhe, sillä kyseessä oli yksi omaperäisimpiä scifitrillereitä vuosiin ja vaikka tämä uusintaversio kuinka yrittäisi, se on tuomittu elämään esikuvansa varjossa. Uusi Total Recall esittelee paljon hienoja tulevaisuuden visioita, muutaman mukiinmenevän roolisuorituksen ja filmin tehosteet ovat henkeä salpaavan hienoja, mutta tätä ja hienoja toimintakohtauksia lukuunottamatta elokuvasta ei muuta käteen jääkään. Se on viihdyttävä toimintaelokuva, ei muuta.

I decided to give this fourth Jack Ryan film a look after a long while and it truly is a measure of how a decent action thriller is supposed to be made. Director Robinson has been known to make films of lighter genres (Field Of Dreams for example), but as he demonstrated with Sneakers back in 1992, he can easily pull off suspense and Fears is another magnificent benchmark of this. Neo-nazis are pinning US and Russia against each other by framing each other of terrorist acts and (in this film still up and coming) CIA analyst Ryan (Affleck) is the man to stop world destruction. Freeman's mentor to Ryan, Cabot beautifully reflects James Earl Jones' Admiral Greer from previous Ryan films while Cromwell and Hinds face each other off as presidents of the two fuming nations. You could cut the brilliantly built tension with a knife and the only small complaint comes from Affleck's mannerisms still on display at this point of his career. A special mention must be given to Jerry Goldsmith for a memorable and hauntingly beautiful score (as showcased below). A fifth self-titled Jack Ryan film is currently filming with Chris Pine as the lead, Costner lending support and Kenneth Branagh behind the camera. They better not fuck up the gold winning streak which has been going all the way from the superb The Hunt For Red October through Patriot Games and Clear And Present Danger to this. Here's hoping.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

This alien-invasion-at-sea has been shit on by every professional critic on earth but then again you show me a critic who understands the simple fun of summer popcorn movies and I'll show you someone who doesn't have a pole up their ass. Battleship is (said to be) based on the legendary Hasbro board game but really, how do you make a movie out of a simple game of strategy which you can play with a piece of paper and a pencil? Answer: you don't. This movie could've done fine without the affiliation to the game since all they really do to tie the two together are couple of scenes where people bomb the invading aliens by using coordinates. Guess they just thought the tie-in would sell a few extra tickets. Battleship is a shamelessly entertaining action film created with the best photoreal special effects available and it's brutally honest about being nothing more than two glorious hours of blowing shit up.

Monday, August 20, 2012

One of the great directors of Hollywood's most gorgeous action movies is gone. Tony Scott was known for a unique style with his use of camera and editing. Most likely best known as the director of Tom Cruise's career making hit, Top Gun and for being one of the definitive film directors of the 1980's, Scott continued to entertain audiences not only with spectacular car chases and shootouts but also his successful understanding of comedy timing in films like Beverly Hills Cop II and The Last Boy Scout.

Tony Scott was the brother of legendary Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Prometheus) of whom it has been said by critics that Ridley is a storyteller where Tony only did films for action. This is not true. Tony Scott's films were surely action oriented but they always had a heart at their core driving a relatable humane story. Just look at great films like True Romance and Spy Game. They are ultimately about people and not the commotion around them. Tony, your vision and the spirit you brought to your films will be missed.

Well, turns out that pretty much all that hype was for a film that wants to be radical and thought provoking social commentary but doesn't have the balls to seriously follow through. The comparisons with legendary cult film Batoru Rowaiaru (Battle Royale) are inevitable and the fact is that after such a film, The Hunger Games tastes like a diet soda after Royale's full flavored sugar version. The film is set in a dystopian future where young people from their "districts" are picked to compeed til death on a hugely popular reality TV show.

For starters the film should've been made as rated R and not PG-13 because the deaths in the competition become indifferent when every kill takes place outside of frame or is shot in a way you can't tell what's really happening. This desensitization takes all the horror and sympathy for the demise of these characters out of the equation. Most of the "tributes" (contestants) are killed off immediately at the start of the game and are left to be just meaningless statistics. Lawrence and Hutcherson are both excellent actors but the material just isn't quite up to their par. The first half of the film is spend setting up the premise of the game itself and the relationship between Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen and Hutcherson's Peeta Mellark which is all fine and ultimately gives the film some soul and makes the whole thing worth a look but when they start to get close as the film progresses into game mode, this amounts to nothing more than teen soap. Couple of fellow gamers, Fuhrman (Orphan) and Stenberg (Colombiana) emerge from the crop and manage to raise some emotion.

Banks, Kravitz, Harrelson, Tucci, Bentley and Sutherland are all left on the outskirts of the story with really nothing constructive to do especially in the second half. This may all change though as the sequels continue the tale. There're two more books, Catching Fire and Mockinjay and the latter is being cut up into two films. This is officially of course because "there's too much story to include in just one film". Greater box office returns naturally don't have anything to do with this, oh no. After all, it is highly likely the violence in this film was watered down in order to reach younger and thus larger audiences at once. Which is fucking bullshit.

The absolute best way to summarize EX2 is that it's the film the original was supposed to be. The Expendables was a nice nod to the action heroes of the old days but many crucial players were nowhere to be seen (Van Damme? Seagal?). They're still not all here but some old faces have been added to the mix and with them something else lacking the first film has luckily been found: a real sense of having fun.

Simon West (Con Air, The Mechanic), I thought, wasn't the ideal choice to helm the sequel but he proved me wrong because this is easily the second best film of his wobbly career (only second to the wrongfully forgotten The General's Daughter). Maybe they'll get Renny Harlin for the next film? He sure as shit doesn't seem to have anything more constructive on his hands.

Chuck Norris raised brows recently after making supportive statements on the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts. As much as I disagree with his views, I have to admit it warms my action fan's heart when he shows up and after levelling a whole bunch of baddies even tells a great Norris joke. Van Damme is clearly having the time of his life playing the main bad guy. This is all aces but what really gives this film it's soul is the active involvement of Willis and Schwarzenegger. In the first film the two only showed up for one scene and did nothing but talk with Stallone. Okay. This time it's an entirely different game. They are side by side with Stallone and knee deep in action, blowing away bad guys like in the good old days. The Expendables 2 is a smoothly rolling, exciting and at times ultra violent action film and as close as we're ever going to get to the original badass films from the 80's and 90's. There's been some talk about trying to get Eastwood and Ford to do the next installment.. Ford would be great but if Eastwood says yes, I will fucking jizz in my pants.

Thank a higher power for this film! I've been mostly disappointed with Burton films for the last decade. They've been eye candy for sure but nowhere near the overall quality of his early work. In fact, the previous old school Burton movie was Sleepy Hollow way back in '99 but now comes Dark Shadows, a dark comedy adaptation of a 60's cult TV series. It's everything you'd expect from vintage Burton: gothic production design, delicious dark comedy with sarcastic undertones and great, great performances from the entire cast (Green steals the show with her scheeming antagonist witch). Dark Shadows is a fish out of water tale of a vampire (Depp) who is locked away in the 1770's and released 200 years later. The script is full of hilarious gags and gives everyone involved a chance to shine. I was smiling the whole rest of the day after seeing this return to form from a great director. A sincere thank you, Tim. You've still got it!

Chronicle can effectively be described as Cloverfield meet X-Men. Three guys stumble across a mysterious object underground which gradually gives them supernatural powers but corrupts one of them. The premise sounds easy to say the least and in many cases it might've been but the movie benefits greatly from the "lost footage found" approach which was of course made big by the makers of The Blair Witch Project. What also elevates Chronicle (and the characters) to the skies are the subtle special effects. If this was a standard summer action movie, the FX could've easily taken over but since Chronicle aims much lower, they are there simply to enhance the story. The action does go up in the last reel but even then dictated by the torn relationships of the central characters.

At the time of Heath Ledger's death, when rumors already started to circulate about the possible plot of the third movie in Nolan's series, it was said that The Joker was supposed to be included in this film. Now it's easy to see why. The anarchy released in previous installments, as large as it had been, was only a prelude to the third act where pretty much every major villain in the series thus far shows up. Shit, they even bring back Neeson's dead Ra's Al Ghul. Kind of. Gotham's destiny is threatened even more than ever before. The stakes are up. Not only for the people of Gotham and our legendary caped crusader but also for Nolan.

The Dark Knight was a massive box office hit which was not only because of the brilliant film itself but also 'cause of Ledger's untimely demise during the film's post-production. The Joker was his last completed (and most brilliant) work. Rises didn't have anything as dramatic going on behind the scenes until the film opened earlier today. Unfortunately this film also now has the shadow of death over it after the brutal shootings at the Denver premiere which left 12 dead and several injured including a three month old baby (may I ask what the fuck was the baby doing there in the first place?). This unfortunate incident will no doubt have very little impact on the movie's success which Warner Bros still predicted will most likely not outdo the second installment.

The pressure was on Nolan to deliver a die hard ending to his acclaimed trilogy not only after The Dark Knight but also after the success of Inception and though Nolan doesn't quite reach the same absolute brilliance of those pieces, Rises is still a masterful, well thought-out conclusion to the series with the third act climaxing to a beautiful and valiant hint at the future. Especially the very last shot before credits almost brought a tear to my eye.

Anarchy returns to Gotham eight years after the events of the previous film and largely thanks to Hardy's bald baddie Bane. Hardy is a brilliant actor and he does wonders with the minimalistic delivery. Nolan brought back alot of his Inception cast and they perform together seamlessly now in Gotham City. Rises has great characters and a brilliant cast to perform them though I personally thought Hathaway's Catwoman was a bit feeble and even useless. No-one still can swing their tail like Michelle Pfeiffer. Also, at times the film seems a bit scattered and the evil plot of the bad guys doesn't have the same brilliance of The Joker's plan (or lack thereof), a plan which kind of gave you pause 'cause it actually made sense in it's demented way and was even appealing. Well, to me at least. His plan put not only Batman and the rest of the characters but also the audience to a test of moral reflection. The Dark Knight Rises is a very solid film much like Batman Begins but maybe not the masterpiece The Dark Knight was.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

This Means War is a project I had high expectations for. Though honestly the director on the project didn't inspire much confidence, 'cause even though personally I loved McG's Terminator Salvation, the two Charlie's Angels films were fucking awful mostly because of his stupid directorial ideas. The thing that made me expect great things from this caper about two spy buddies falling for the same woman, were the two leading men. Chris Pine (Star Trek) has magnificent hidden comedic potential and Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises).. well he's just a master class character actor of our time and if he signed up, there must be something worth a look. And indeed, This Means War is a funny, laid back and well acted spy comedy. Witherspoon does her usual stint and is forgettable but as expected Pine and Hardy are on top form and even McG manages to hit the right notes in terms of comedy and action beats. Right on.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

I'd be easy as shit to just give this film one statue but it simply isn't true. Battlefield Earth is waaay too funny to be the worst film ever made. In fact, I honestly think the straight-to-DVD market offers every month much more serious candidates for the Alan Smithee category. Those movies tend to be made only for the profit and offer next to nothing new to the genres they represent. Battlefield Earth at least was made with genuine enthusiasm, though very misguided. The production design of this film is naturally meant to give a feel of a post-apocalyptic world but it backfires since as a result the movie simply looks cheap. Add to that the stupid costume design (especially of the evil, earth invading psychlos), horrible home made special effects.. eh, I'd get a carpal tunnel syndrome if I'd actually attempt to list everything that's wrong with this fucking thing. Suffice to say Battlefield Earth is a camp classic right up (or down depending on your preference) with Plan 9 From Outer Space. But enough about Forest Whitaker.

As silly as this alien invasion is, I'd still love to see a film made of the true Scientology dribble which is of course the incomprehesible story of Xenu in which these people actually (claim to) believe in. Go on, look the damn thing up if you don't believe me. Then again South Park already did a wonderful job with it in the brilliant, infamous episode Trapped In The Closet (s9e12) which known Scientologist Tom Cruise tried to ban from American TV.

Since the Millennium book trilogy written by Swedish author Stieg Larsson became such an international hit and especially after the Swedes did a very succesful and brilliant film trilogy of it, the Hollywood remake was just a matter of who, how and when. Well: the brilliant director of Se7en and Fight Club, filmed mainly on location in Sweden and fucking immediately.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the remake of the first chapter Män Som Hatar Kvinnor which launched the international careers of it's original stars Noomi Rapace (Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, Prometheus) and Michael Nyqvist (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol), who've been replaced here by Mara and Craig. Rapace's central character Lisbeth Salander was a very hard hitting, no compromise feminist character and wisely Fincher and Mara have not moved away from that. Salander remains the strongest female character in international cinema since Ellen Ripley. The only minus is the slight hollywoodization of the relationship between Salander and Craig's reporter Michael Blomqvist which didn't happen in the original film. The remake is in other terms just as brilliant and shamelessly entertaining as the original so it's easy to overlook such a minor detail.

Fincher's visual handprint fits to the material like a glove and the decision to shoot exterior shots on location in Sweden remains a stroke of genius since if the story had been modified to have taken place in the States, it would've lost much of it's emotional originality. A special thank you must be given for the inclusion of brilliant Swedish character actor Skarsgård (The Avengers, Good Will Hunting), who further grounds the film into Swedish mind set. We'll just have see what comes of the sequel remakes The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest and The Girl Who Played With Fire.

I am not my job or how much money I have in the bank.

Just felt like sharing my views and opinions about these films and related topics with you, but feel free to let me know if there's a particular film of which you'd like me to write about. If I haven't seen it, I'll try to make an effort to find it and review it for you.
Bare in mind that I'm only just getting started. There's not much material yet, but Rome wasn't built in a day either. Right?? :) and also, I'm a Finnish guy so give me a break if my english isn't 100%.